The Questions Every Dentist Must Ask Before It’s Too Late

Announcer:
Hello everyone. Welcome to The Millionaire Dentist Podcast brought to you by Four Quadrants Advisory. On this podcast, we break down the world of dentistry finances and business practices to help you become the millionaire dentist you deserve to be. Please be advised, we do speak with an honest tongue and may not be safe for work.

Casey Hiers:
Hello and welcome. This is Casey Hiers back at it again at The Millionaire Dentist Podcast. Co-host Jarrod Bridgeman joins me in studio.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Hey, good afternoon.

Casey Hiers:
How are you, sir?

Jarrod Bridgeman:
I'm great. You?

Casey Hiers:
What do you want to talk about?

Jarrod Bridgeman:
I want to talk about practice owners in general. When do they realize they need help? Are there certain questions they should be asking themselves, or possibly their team should bring to their attention? Is there a guide that can help with that?

Casey Hiers:
It goes back to our title, right? The Millionaire Dentist Podcast to dentists in multimillion-dollar dentistry. Why? And you're asking what questions or what that looks like?

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yeah, is there a way to, I guess, assess that?

Casey Hiers:
Absolutely. So what happens is dentistry is not what people think it is, not everybody, but a large percentage. There's some point in their career where they say dentistry is not what they thought it was.

It's either because they are not making the money they wanted to, or there are issues in the practice. Adult babysitting's getting tiresome. There's something that triggers that feeling.

Casey Hiers:
And so typically, there's a catalyst. And when that happens, people tend to get more serious about figuring out said issue. From our perspective, when that happens, we have a whole bunch of questions we typically get into to to gauge that and measure that.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Well, and that's probably a good thing because I feel like if we have these questions, well, I'm sure we'll go through them, but it helps people realize, oh, I may have more, I wouldn't say necessarily issues, but more things to think about.

Casey Hiers:
If our listeners out there don't know the answers to some of these questions that I'll bring up, or if no one on their internal or external team is asking them these questions. There's your red flag, there's your sign, there's your issue. Right? And so hopefully, these are things that our listeners are thinking through, have the answer to, or have an external CFO team that is managing these situations. But really, there are a couple of big ones that come to mind-

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Can I guess one right now? Is it about retirement? And maybe saving enough?

Casey Hiers:
Oh, sure. That's the boogeyman in the closet, right, that every practice owner looks to and wonders and hopes and has their fingers crossed and thinks.

Casey Hiers:
I mean, I talk to people who do it themselves, who are on track for $5 million, some are on track for eight. What they have in common is neither is really confident that they have enough to retire, right?

Jarrod Bridgeman:
We've talked about this in previous podcasts before. I feel like people in general don't understand how much money they actually need when they retire.

Yeah, x amount seems like a lot of dollars, but you can also blow through that faster than you think.

Casey Hiers:
I'm going to be at Mastro's Ocean Club in Scottsdale later this week, presenting, and we actually have a couple of slides where we touch on what a bare ass minimum number needs to be for retirement.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Okay.

Casey Hiers:
And so, we get into that when we do our CE.

But for your original question, first of all, first off, the practice owner needs to have an achiever mentality that says, I have a feeling in the pit of my stomach that I could do better, and I'm not willing to settle.

Once that box is checked, then we get a little more granular, and you mentioned retirement. But the first one is really, are there any issues I want to make better if they're not great, what are they costing me? And ultimately, am I committed to fixing them?

If a practice owner is not committed to fixing them, they never will. Change is hard. People have to be committed to being better. I mean...

Jarrod Bridgeman:
It's the same as we've talked about, be it weight loss, be it stopping smoking, who knows what the case may be, but you have to actually apply yourself.

Casey Hiers:
Starting to be a good parent or stopping a vice, right? I mean, any of these things, you have to have desire. You have to have commitment. The practice is no different.

So, achieving more in the practice is no different, and that's really the first box, but am I saving enough to meet my retirement goals? Yes or no? That's a question that I get into pretty early on. And ultimately, the unknown is a big one that you alluded to. They either say, I don't know or No. Rarely do I hear yes.

I know I'm saving enough to meet my retirement goals. Again, we've had people coming in here saving $80 to $100,000, and they still don't know.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yeah.

Casey Hiers:
Because there are different lifestyles. There are different variables-

Jarrod Bridgeman:
And I feel like if you don't know, the answer really is just, no.

Casey Hiers:
It can be

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Not always, but...

Casey Hiers:
Sometimes they need somebody to just confirm it.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yeah.

Casey Hiers:
Am I or not? Yes, you are. Ah, great. I wasn't sure.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yup.

Casey Hiers:
But that's a big one. And then, some of the other questions, again, that they need to be understanding is, do you have someone dental-specific to talk to who understands your practice?

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yup.

Casey Hiers:
When you go to bring on an associate, move, build, add an op, add procedures, add equipment, all those decisions. Who do you talk to? If you don't really have that go-to person, that's not great. Hopefully, you have some people that you can talk to about your practice-

Jarrod Bridgeman:
And we're not talking about just your average, Johnny CPA. Now, if it's a specific one-

Casey Hiers:
Yeah, I don't want to paint broad strokes.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Okay.

Casey Hiers:
Typically, no. But, if a good CPA is really in your profit and loss statement and balance sheet, and your tax situation on a monthly basis, they're going to have a much better situation. Unfortunately, it's about two times a year that the dentist is going to speak with that person.

Casey Hiers:
But yeah, no, if somebody puts a little effort into it, they can. Jarrod, I'm going to tell you something else. If you're a practice owner, if you're not making over $300,000, why?

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Oh.

Casey Hiers:
Why? I mean, that should be something that you either are doing, you're close to doing, or you know why you're not doing it, but that's one of the big ones. I mean, again, there's some smaller practices out there where you're not there yet. But for the most part, the majority of practice owners should be making over $300,000. Most are not; that's a problem.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
And that's just for income. Right?

Casey Hiers:
Correct.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
That's not even what the practice brings in.

Casey Hiers:
Correct, Correct. Okay. Yes. Practice owner income. It's incredible how many are not. And again, they should know why. They should be asking themselves, How do I get there? And their external teams should be helping them get there. That's what good looks like. And it makes me sad sometimes to hear some of the incomes that these practice owners are making. And there are a lot of reasons, typically they're excuses why they're not, but then it comes back to, are you committed to getting it right? Because if you're not, you should be.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
There's another zinger that you can get in there with, as asking potentially, are you spending too much time doing the business side of things instead of doing what you want to do? Is that another...

Casey Hiers:
That's absolutely right. We have a lot of spouses, they say. I get frustrated that a couple of times a month, my spouse is up between 9:00 and 11:00 when the kids are down doing QuickBooks or doing something.

And so, yeah. Are you spending too much time working on the business side of the practice and less time focused on patient care? Not saying you're not a great clinician to your patients-

Jarrod Bridgeman:
For sure.

Casey Hiers:
But the balance should be very minimal time on the business side. And again, if you feel like you're overwhelmed with it, some even aren't overwhelmed; they're used to doing their QuickBooks or used to doing all their things, but why? What's the plan? Could your time be better spent? Could you go out to get some CE and learn a new procedure, and make thousands of dollars more a day?

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Or gain a better... even just work-life balance and spend time with your kids and family members?

Casey Hiers:
Yup. One of the big things I ask is, what have you tried thus far? Right? Practice management, marketing, hiring and firing staff, switching accountants, switching advisors. What have you done already? What's worked and what hasn't worked?

Ultimately, what I find out is that the ones that have done a lot of this still haven't moved the needle, right? They've done a lot of things. They've worked with a lot of good people. They've had some great practice management. They're not making over $300, they're not saving $100, right? And so, it doesn't truly move the needle, but at least they've tried some things.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
That shows them being proactive.

Casey Hiers:
Well, yup, then that's the first thing. Are you proactive? Are you an achiever? Or do you want to settle

Some people listen; they're content. Contentment is a good thing. That being said, some people make an anemic income, and they're not content with it, but they just tell themselves they are, right? So, those are two different positions.

But appreciating success and people who can help you find success, that's important. Those are questions that I ask people. We vet people that come through our process, right? Those are questions I want to know.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
When it comes to vetting, adding onto that, how much do we work on talking to them on a personal level, feeling out if they're able to be coached and guided, and willing to appreciate the value of a team?

Casey Hiers:
Yes, coachability is incredibly important. People have to not only want to achieve more, but they have to be coachable and be able to take criticism to achieve more. And I think that's important.

Typically, cash flow and personal bank accounts come in. There's inconsistency; there are too many fluctuations.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Well, because you could be making really, really good money, but not handling your cash flow properly. Right? Those are two different... completely different-

Casey Hiers:
Yeah, we talked to people who, hell, they may be making $500,000 a year in dentistry, but their cash flow and their bank accounts and their life's a mess. They're spending $650 and making $500. That's not a good equation. That's not a good place to be.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
So, I mean, that all makes sense. I like the fact that we have these questions. This is just a small cross-section of what we ask, I guess, right?

Casey Hiers:
Yeah, no, it's... You asked me this, I'm glad you did, right? I printed something out. We went through some things, again, as a listener, you should be asking yourself these questions. You should know the answer, and you should have some help getting the answers to these. And that's a big.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Because if you call in, we're going to ask you.

Casey Hiers:
Touche. Hey, Jared, I enjoyed it. Good stuff. Be well.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
All right, thank you.

Announcer:
That's all the time we have today. Thank you to our guests for their insight and for sharing some really great information. And thank you to you, the listener, for tuning in. The Millionaire Dentist Podcast is brought to you by Four Quadrants Advisory. To see if they might be a good fit for you and your practice, go on over to fourquadrantsadvisory.com and see why, year after year, they retain over 95% of their clients. Thank you again for joining us, and we'll see you next time.